Spectrum auctions, license fee and one-time spectrum charges are likely to swell government’s kitty by 76% to Rs 98,994.93 crore in the financial year ending March 2017. In the current financial year, the government expects an income of Rs 56,034.35 crore from the telecom sector.

“The arrears of the previous years and receipts from fresh auction are also included in the Budget Estimates 2016-17,” the budget documents said.

The spectrum auctions, which are slated for June this year, would be the biggest spectrum auction in the history with seven bands of 2G, 3G and 4G airwaves, including 700 MHz, put up for sale and the government expects to churn about Rs 5.44 lakh crore.

Last year, the government had garnered about Rs 1.1 lakh crore from the spectrum auctions. The projected revenue for 2016-17 would be more than 150% than Rs 37,000 crore which the government had fetched as on December 31, 2015, the Economic Times reported.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had proposed a starting price of Rs 11,485 crore per unit in the 700 MHz band. Spectrum in the 800 MHz band is priced at Rs 5,819 crore per MHz, a 60% increase from the minimum price of the previous auction. At the same time, the reserve price for 2100 MHz band has been fixed at Rs 3,746 crore, while the price for 1800 MHz has been proposed at Rs 2,873 crore.

The prices of airwaves in the 2300 MHz and the 2500 MHz bands have been proposed at Rs 817 crore per MHz. However, the Department of Telecom has not come out with a final decision on prices.

Having over six years of experience in business journalism, Krishna has a knack for writing on telecom and IT. She believes that tryst with technology is the best thing that has ever happened to the mankind. Krishna is a telecom analyst with CMR